Another word on ILR

My thoughts on today's consolidation announcement from Bauer.

Understandably, those who share a love of these heritage brands are mourning their loss. I grew up with Eagle locally and I’ve been lucky enough to know lovely folks at Spire and Spirit amongst other successful local stations that will always hold a special place in my heart.

While posters on radio forums are far from being representative of most listeners (and I’d question how many of them actually listened regularly) obviously there will be genuine sadness among loyal listeners as their favourite presenters leave - every time it happens, an outpouring in texts and on social media. Of course, this is not unique to radio.

Think of Woolworths, Blockbuster and, at a local level, that bakery on the corner or the library.

How DARE they close the library? It’s a disgrace!

Everybody wants to save it regardless of whether or not they used it.

When commercial radio launched in the 70s, heavily regulated with very few stations (generally one in each area), it faced little to no competition from other media.

When celebrating local success, we lose sight of this fact. If you lived on Mars and there was only one chippie, where would you go for your fish and chips?

Interestingly, with most ILR (the overwhelming majority in a few months) part of big groups, the overall reach of these licences has hardly changed since Global and Bauer first rebranded and/or increased networking.

It’s amazing that, in this rapidly advancing world, our great medium is still consumed by some 89% of the population.

Listeners enjoy more choice than ever before thanks to DAB/DAB+ - and commercial radio has never had more listeners than it does today - but this has increased the pressure already on smaller stations from rival media.

Without powerhouses to take on the BBC and new competitors, commercial radio’s future would look pretty bleak - and with the only INR on FM being a classical music station, consolidation was the only option. Global has set the bar high and now Bauer wants a slice of the pie.

Both groups retain quality, balanced multi-platform local journalism which is vital to our democracy and in the fight against fake news. Some believe it’s about doing the bare minimum - if that were the case, they wouldn’t bother with digital content. It’s also good for reach and adds credibility.

While research suggests news is still of strong interest, above all, listeners want to be entertained. Radio as a platform is not the go-to for essential information like it once was.

Ask anyone in the street what they want from a LOCAL radio station and they’ll say “local news, traffic (etc)” - things it is renowned for providing - but if you ask what they want from a radio station generally they’ll say entertaining/interesting output.

Greatest Hits Radio has a strong lineup and fills what was before a surprising gap in the market.